We wine lovers are a peculiar tribe. We are obsessed by something inconsequential that takes years of dedication and considerable funds to grasp. Even then we grasp wine only incompletely and with pangs of disappointment a constant presence. Why then is wine a worthy object of love?
Beauty and the Yeast: A Philosophy of Wine, Life, and Love is an attempt to understand fermented grape juice in all its glory and pathos.
Although a book of philosophy, it is not a book for academics only. It is written in an accessible style and requires no previous knowledge of philosophy to grasp. Although it is a book of theory, it raises a variety of practical issues that affect the daily lives of consumers, producers, and people who write about and discuss wine. How should we taste wine and communicate wine’s beauty to others? How do we explain wine’s ability to evoke emotions and stimulate the imagination? How does wine appreciation differ from wine criticism, and why should we rely on critics to determine wine quality? The wine world is rapidly changing. What concepts help us understand those changes and how do we articulate them? And how do we get beyond the stale and unhelpful opposition between subjectivity and objectivity?
If wine appreciation is to reach its full potential, we need new concepts and new vocabularies to make sense of it. The aim of Beauty and the Yeast is to supply those concepts.
It is available at Amazon in paperback ($21.95) and ebook ($9.99) throughout much of the world. The ebook is now available through a variety of other vendors including Barnes and Noble and Apple. More print options will be available soon.
For the wine lover in your life, this is an affordable holiday gift that will make that Premier Crus under the tree taste even better.
Exploring the Philosophy of Food and Wine 